We recently sent a few questions to Roger Byrne, the ever-imaginative mind behind both Styletime and Votetime, and he was kind enough to take the time and answer them for us. Roger's impact on the design community is a far-reaching one indeed, and we were very excited when he agreed to grant us the interview. Of course, then we got his answers back, and the excitement faded. Totally kidding. The Arbenting team is proud to present, Ten Questions For Roger Byrne, The Man Behind The 'Ti.me's!

Question 1 - Thank you so much for agreeing to the interview. So what got you interested in the design field?

I would say I got interested in the 'Internet' field again about 12 months ago, I'm a partner in two SCUBA Diving centers in Egypt and that has left me time to explore other interesting things, web design / graphic design has been one of those thing's I touched on around 17 years ago but got side tracked into a sales career rather than a design career!

Very short history from my About page:

"Originally from Bedford, England then moved to London where I spent the last 5 years as an Account Manager for bmc.com, 9/11 happened and I was made redundant along with about 40% of the sales force.

Decided to travel! Sold the car ;( moved out of the three story house in Twickers and left!

To cut a long story short here I am five years later in Egypt, partner in two scuba diving centers Deep Divers, with my gorgeous wife Andrea, and our dog Mr Snoop.

Question 2 -You have stated that you are not a designer, and yet, you do so much for the advancement of the design community. What made you that cool, and how can I be like you?

It's weird really I thought I had no chance of being part of the community as I'm not a designer but I just chatted and shared stuff through Twitter which is how Styletime really took off and the great
people let me in! Andrew from wrote a post about it recently and of all the communities on Twitter I think the design community is the most warm, welcoming and insightful!

Next step for Styletime is a redesign! The PSD's been done the XHTML/CSS is nearly finished and then it's onto ExpressionEngine. This work is being carried out by a great designer and new friend Ryan Downie who will also be making a post about the redesign process on Styletime once it's done. I really can't wait I'm a bit apprehensive about ExpressionEgnine but some good Twitter friends have told me not to worry!

The logo's for Styletime, Votetime and new project Favetime have also been branded by Graham Smith and I'm really pleased with the result's we will still do some fine touches color's, accompanying text font and minor tweak's here and there once the final site designs are complete.

My brief to Graham was whatever decided factor's he want's, as you designer's are always complaining about the client I thought you can be the client for once and have total freedom! ;)

Apart from the redesign nothing much will change but my main aim is to get Styletime to a level which will also attract guest poster's as with the other project's getting on and my 'normal' business day I start to loose the time to invest in posting so frequently.

Question 4 - What are your favorite things about the community at large?

In a word, Sharing! A lot of people complain about retweeting but for me it's a thumbs up for that post your linking to! Or just that you found it interesting and wanted to share!

This is also how the community can grow and expand @ABC might have only half a dozen followers but if he/she writes something interesting and @XYZ with 700 followers retweets it then more people are likely to follow @ABC and interact with them and so the design community grows and interacts more...

Question 5 - Vot.eti.me is still relatively new, but what are your long term plans for it?

Ha, Votetime was just a fun side project which I've really enjoyed and was inspired by the recent sale of Design Bump on Sitepoint I just thought well OK one person's given up on their baby so I'll try to create one of my own. Thanks to the support of the community traffic and voting is starting to get to a good level (so is the SPAM)!

The only differentiating factor between other's like Design Bump or DesignFloat is that Votetime will tweet your link to all @votetime followers on Twitter (Can you tell I like Twitter? ;) ) currently
there are 270+ follower's!

Question 6 - So what does your average day look like (or rather read like)?

Hmm average day!? Let's put it this way in general I can sleep when I want and get up when I like, so I wouldn't say there is any average but a typical day includes the usual email, rss, twitter, tweaking site's and planning the work and responding to question's from staff in the diving center!

And in between all that my wife and I are able to go SCUBA Diving sit on the beach or take our son Mr Snoop for walk's in the desert ;)

Question 7 - How much tweeting, is too much tweeting, if too much tweeting could in fact be tweeted?

Yeah good question but not sure I have the answer! Too much retweeting can be a turn off as well as too much personal tweeting so you just have to find a balance. You will gain follower's and you will loose follower's but just be yourself with a moderation of self control ;)

I do have a problem with people mixing too much personal stuff in with what is essentially there business twittering! If you want to chit chat for an hour on Twitter then setup a personal account!, people don't follow you to hear ALL that personal stuff ;)

I'm currently tapping alot of firm's especially with new services for FREE stuff ;) to help spread the word, and I must clarify first I'm not paid to do this I don't hide affiliate link's on Twitter I get no
favour's whatsoever I just do it because I found that I could get something for free and give back to the community for eg I did a post about fonts fontshop offered a 15% discount using code STYLETIME I get nothing from this! Another I got a free 2 month sub from @animoto for their new Animoto Photography I don't make any money from this I just like to get stuff and give it away ;)

The same with GetSignOff I was one of the first tweeting about the service launch unfortunately they never bothered to reply to my call for FREE access to give to somebody ;) Some do! Some don't!

One of the best people and companies for giving back to the community is Collis @collis and Envato they are alway's willing to help you! Sorry Collis I'm sure you'll get too many requests now ;(

Question 8 - You've got another secretive pet project that you are currently working on, which as of yet has an unannounced release date, called Fav.eti.me. So what's the secret (just whisper it to me, I promise I won't tell anyone)?

Okay so a little info and a spy pic ;) Just the idea came with my love for Twitter and the fact that I found alot of Flickr design group's to be fragmented so wanted to make one BIG Flickr group with a very simple solution for submitting your designs that you wish to showcase to the world! It also includes voting with the idea that the community votes to get the best designs onto the front page.

That's all for now but I think I've given the whole picture away anyway! Follow @favetime for the latest info and only people who are following @favetime will be able to use the service so it gives me
some kind of moderator control ;)

Question 9 - What trends do you see shaping the design field at the moment?

That's not really a question I feel qualified to answer I can tell you a short lists of design thing's i like and don't like:

Like:

• -Typography as you'll see with the new Styletime redesign. I'm one of the few people who like Impact but don't worry that's NOT in the redesign ;)
• -Bright colors but used sparingly.
• Simple clean grid layout's that show off content and information rather than flashy JS effect's, featured galleries etc. I think a back to basics and focus on content not visual effects is/should come back to blogging!
• -I still like dark websites but only if they are mixed with really bright colours see http://www.themattinator.com/ as an example and I love the logo hover's in the footer!

Dislike:

• -Web 2.0 Shiny button's
• -mybloglog widget's and such like in the sidebar to me these just say they are a 'How to make money online' type of blog
• -Wood was nice but now I think it's had it's day same with Grunge!

Question 10 - What advice would you have for anyone looking to become a part of the design community to help get them started?

Simple really just get involved start tweeting or doing what you want to do, take critiques of your stuff and learn from them, move on and never get offended.

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